Focus please: Team coordination and performance at a wood manufacturer

Many wood manufacturers currently utilize teams, yet optimizing performance continues to be a key challenge to team utilization. This research sought to extend our knowledge of team performance by examining two aspects of performance in a wood production environment. This research builds on past research with white-collar professionals suggesting linear relationships between a team's focus and its performance: positive for external focus and negative for internal focus. A team's focus is measured using the degree to which its members actively coordinate with persons internal or external to their team. Data were collected from 249 organizational members and 51 teams working in two wood composite plants. Results indicate that supervisors and team members perceive the coordination-performance relationship somewhat differently. In both cases external coordination had a significant effect on performance, but team members perceived a linear relationship whereas supervisors see a curvilinear relationship. Implications are drawn for the design and management of high performance work teams in wood production facilities.